


alone; together

by ZephyrEden



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Family, Intimacy, M/M, Nightmares, Parenthood, good luck pulling sora having nightmares away from my cold necrotic fingers, i wasn't sure if this would be rated gen so?? teen i guess????, liverpepper au, you'll never take this from me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 15:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16177760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZephyrEden/pseuds/ZephyrEden
Summary: Time alone is hard to find. Time together is not.





	alone; together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yourhandiheld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourhandiheld/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAY!!! I HOPE YOUR DAY IS WONDERFUL AND FILLED WITH LAUGHTER AND SMILES!!!

It’s the agonizingly slow speed at which Squall works to close the bedroom door that first gets Cloud’s attention.

Squall’s brow is furrowed in concentration, one hand twisting the doorknob so that once the door is finally settled in its frame it remains quiet instead of letting out the telltale clacking of a closing door. His face relaxes and he lets out a sigh of relief once he’s done.

The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. That’s why Cloud can’t help the small smile that quirks up the corners of his lips. “Are the boys asleep?” he asks, voice lower than it really needs to be. He bookmarks his place and puts the book he was reading on the nightstand.

Squall turns away from the door, his eyes softening the second they land on Cloud. “Tucked in and drooling,” he answers easily, perhaps a hint of pride in his voice at getting them to sleep rather easily for once.

“Drooling, huh?” Cloud huffs a laugh under his breath. “They must’ve been really tuckered out, then.” They had spent the majority of the day at the zoo, so it’s really no surprise. He tries (and fails) to suppress a yawn. Keeping up with two excitable and energetic five-year-olds left him tired too.

“Aw,” Squall coos teasingly as he makes his way to the bed, making Cloud immediately frown in response. The brunette moves up the bed and Cloud is almost surprised when Squall is the one to straddle _his_ lap and not the other way around. He doesn’t have time to question him though, not when Squall’s warm hands cradle his face with a tenderness that makes him instantly melt.

Squall is good at ruining the moment, though.

“Are you tuckered, too?” he continues to tease, smiling as his chest rumbles with a silent laugh.

Cloud narrows his eyes. “I know you think you’re cute,” he starts but his smirk instantly betrays him, “but you’re not.”

“Mmhmm,” Squall hums and wastes no more time as he closes the distance between their lips.

It always starts like this with Squall, Cloud thinks. With kisses that are slow and warm and deep and near achingly sweet, like a honey only he can taste. It only serves to make him hungry. Hungrier. His hands slide easily into long brown hair, fingers tangling into the strands and pulling just enough that Squall groans lowly into his mouth and Cloud eagerly devours the sound. When they pull apart, he can see just how dark Squall’s eyes have gotten and he already feels naked beneath their hungry gaze.

Not that it’s a surprise. It’s no secret that alone time isn’t something they get much of nowadays. Nowadays being since a pair of twins entered their lives. And while they try to take every minute they can spare for each other, it’s hardly the intimacy they both crave. They both need.

Squall leans down to Cloud’s neck and the blonde instinctively raises his chin, gasping when he feels the grazing of teeth across the front of his throat. The sound lowers into a quiet moan when Squall moves to the spot where his neck and shoulder join, sealing his lips around it for a harsh moment before his tongue apologetically soothes it.

In a half-lidded daze, Cloud’s wraps his arms around him, one fisting in the back of his shirt while the other slides back into his hair and holds him there. He can feel Squall’s breathy chuckle on his skin but he can’t bring himself to care about whatever “neediness” the other is laughing about right now. Maybe he does need this. So what? He knows Squall needs it just as badly as he does.

It’s just as Squall’s hands are sliding underneath Cloud’s shirt, hands splayed across his stomach, that they hear it and freeze.

The creak of the door.

“Daddy…” Sora mumbles through a yawn, pushing the door open with tiny hands and sleep drooped eyes that he’s tiredly rubbing at.

It’s almost laughable, to Cloud at least, just how quickly Squall launches off of him and to the other side of the bed. The children are almost as adept at ruining moments as Squall is. Like father, like sons.

“Sora,” Squall calls, voice slightly hoarse but missing all trace of the desperate craving that was there only moments ago. They both know their chance has passed for tonight.

Sora big blue eyes only have a second to find his parents staring at him from the bed before his vision is blurred by a flood of bubbling tears. “I-I had that d-dream again,” he suddenly sobs, rushing clumsily to the side of the bed. His hands fist in the sheets, trying to haul his small body up onto a bed that’s taller than his own.

Squall pulls him up while Cloud moves the blankets down, Sora scrambling to cocoon himself in the space between his dads, the place he feels safest in the entire world.

“We-We were on a raft and-and,” Sora blubbers, unable to stop his tears, “there was a storm and it was really dark and really loud. I-I-I couldn’t remember how to swim a-and I couldn’t find anyone!” Sora latches onto Squall the second he scoots closer, burying his against a warm and sturdy chest while tears and snot soak into both of their shirts.

Cloud moves closer as well, slender fingers combing comfortingly in Sora’s hair. It’s been a reoccurring nightmare that Sora has been having recently. One where he and his friends go to sail the ocean on a raft they built together before a storm suddenly hits and Sora is left treading water by himself in the middle of an inky sea made just as much of water as it is made of shadows.

“It’s okay,” Cloud murmurs gently but it still gets Sora to turn enough to be able look at him over his small trembling shoulder. Cloud smiles, his entire expression soft. “It’s okay,” he repeats, a thumb wiping at the tears under one of Sora’s eyes and against his cheek. “There is no storm. Your friends are all at home fast asleep. The ocean and the sky are both calm and quiet right now, see?”

They all fall quietly aside from Sora’s now occasional sniffling, letting him listen to the quiet that envelops them both inside and outside the house. “It’s quiet,” Sora agrees, lifting his fist to rub at his nose.

Squall nods and hums. “Nothing to worry about here, then. Not when you’re safe here with us.”

Sora nods and, now that the fear has mellowed out, his eyes are heavier than ever. He scoots a little bit away from Squall to give them both some room, snuggling sleepily into a pillow. “Night night, Dad. Night night, Pa.”

“Good night, Sora,” Squall responds, reaching back to turn off the light and leaving the bedroom in darkness.

Cloud knows better than to respond yet. Where there’s one, there’s always two.

It only takes a handful of seconds before the half open door creaks open even wider, the third brunette of the house stumbling over his feet as he puts too much of his tired body weight against the doorknob. “Pa, Sora isn’t-“ Roxas starts but he can already make out the shape of his brother in the middle of the bed. He can’t see much in the dark, but hears Cloud pat his side of the bed, so he staggers over and lets Cloud help him up before he crawls beneath the covers next to Sora.

Even with separate beds now in the same shared room, Roxas hates sleeping alone. It never fails that he’ll wake up whenever he somehow realizes Sora is no longer there.

“Night night, Roxas,” Sora slurs through sleep and they know he’s starting over again. “Night night, Dad. Night night, Pa.”

“Good night, Sora,” Squall repeats, rolling onto his side with an arm tucked beneath his head, a little extra support to the quarter of a pillow he has left to use while Roxas uses the one in the middle and Sora somehow manages to use both the center pillow and half of Squall’s own.

“G’night, Sora,” Roxas yawns, easily falling back to sleep now that he’s in the warmth of company. “G’night, Pa. G’night, Dad.”

“Good night, Roxas,” Squalls drones on autopilot. Now that it’s time to actually sleep, his body dredges up the day’s exhaustion easily enough to make him tired.

Even Cloud thinks he might sleep for once. “Night, Sora. Night, Roxas.” His eyes are already closed when he hears movement against the pillows beside him. He cracks an eye open to find Squall looking at him, affection in his eyes and an apologetic smile on his lips, even if he knows Cloud hardly blames him. Cloud looks up towards the pillow where he finds Squall’s arm laying right above the twins’ heads as it stretches out towards him, his hand open and inviting.

Cloud smiles softly as he places his hand in Squall’s and closes his eyes again. It might not be the same kind of intimacy, but he thinks this is something he needs just as badly. Maybe even more.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](http://twitter.com/deepseasalt_) | [tumblr](http://deepseasalt.tumblr.com) | [carrd](http://zephyreden.carrd.co)


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